A Genesee County circuit court jury in 2011 convicted Feronda Smith in the 2005 shooting of drug dealer Larry Pass at Pass’s home.

The now-40-year-old Smith was among about 30 people arrested in 2007 in a federal and local crackdown on the Pierson Hood gang. Smith got the mandatory sentence of life in prison without parole.

At trial, two witnesses claimed to have been present when Smith allegedly shot Pass. Tarence Lard testified for the prosecution as part of a plea agreement for his part in the crime. Mark Yancy maintained his innocence with respect to the shooting, but admitted collecting Pass’s drugs, helping dispose of the murder weapon and using cocaine with Smith and Lard after the shooting.

At a pretrial hearing, a special agent testified that Yancy was compensated for his assistance in an FBI investigation into Pass’s murder and a suspected criminal enterprise involving Smith. At trial, however, the jury was never informed that Yancy was a paid informant. Instead, Yancy testified that he had not received any compensation for his cooperation in relation to Smith’s case.

The court issued a split decision Thursday overturning Smith’s conviction. It says jurors should have heard that Yancy received payment for helping the FBI investigate the gang and Pass’s killing. Court records show that Yancy received $4,000 for the information he provided investigators.

“Yancy’s trial testimony undoubtedly left the jury with the impression that he received no payment of any kind for his participation in this case. That overall impression was false. Instead of rectifying this false impression, the prosecutor capitalized on and exploited it,” the court wrote in its opinion.

The decision goes on to say that no physical evidence connected Smith to the crime, and that he was convicted solely on the testimony of two witnesses who had significant credibility issues.

Alton, Mo. — Michael Amick is back in Oregon County today. The once convicted grandmother killer was returned to the Oregon County Jail on Friday and is being held in the general population.
Amick, who recently had his conviction overturned by the Missouri Supreme Court, has been assigned Howell County Associate Circuit Court Judge Don Henry. According to a spokesman for the Oregon County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office no court date has yet been set.
Amick was convicted of murdering his wife’s grandmother and setting his mother-in-law’s house on fire in Myrtle, Mo., in 2008.The jury reduced his charges from first degree murder and arson to second degree charges. He was sentenced to life in prison plus seven years to run concurrently.
His conviction was overturned this June, and thus far the Prosecuting Attorney’s office has not released the charges that will be filed against him.

]]>https://detroit.cbslocal.com/2015/07/25/judge-defends-himself-in-baby-death-case-says-overturning-murder-conviction-will-have-chilling-effect/
Sat, 25 Jul 2015 14:08:00 +0000sstoddarthttps://detroit.cbslocal.com/2015/07/25/judge-defends-himself-in-baby-death-case-says-overturning-murder-conviction-will-have-chilling-effect/JACKSON (WWJ/AP) – A Jackson County judge says a decision by the Michigan Supreme Court to throw out a murder conviction will have a “chilling effect” on judges statewide.

The Supreme Court this week said Judge John McBain’s aggressive questioning of witnesses was unfair to the defendant, Adam Stevens, and spoiled the 2012 trial.

Stevens’ second-degree murder conviction in the 2010 death of his 3-month-old son Kian was thrown out, and he will get a new trial with a different judge. The Supreme Court unanimously said McBain “pierced the veil of judicial impartiality.”

But McBain tells the Jackson Citizen Patriot that he asked “tough questions” that “weren’t fully developed” by the prosecutor or defense.

“A couple of questions were damaging to the defense. I understand that,” McBain told the paper. “That doesn’t mean they were unlawful questions.”

Stevens said he dropped the baby after tripping over a toy truck, Prosecutors told the court that Stevens, now 32, shook the boy or slammed him down, causing “abusive head trauma” that led to his death. He was convicted and sentenced to 25 to 50 years in prison.

But the Supreme Court the Supreme Court said Judge McBain appeared biased and likely influenced the jury, especially when he acted like a prosecutor while questioning a defense expert.

JACKSON (WWJ/AP) – The Michigan Supreme Court has overturned the murder conviction of a man accused of killing his 3-month-old son, saying his rights were violated by a hostile judge who repeatedly asked questions at trial.

Adams Stevens, of Jackson County, was convicted of second-degree murder and child abuse in the 2010 death of his son, Kian.

“Stevens said he dropped the baby after tripping over a toy truck, but the jury didn’t buy his story — possibly because Stevens never mentioned the baby-dropping incident during interviews with police,” said WWJ Legal Analyst Charlie Langton.

Prosecutors told the court that Stevens, now 32, shook the boy or slammed him down, causing “abusive head trauma” that led to his death. He was convicted and sentenced to 25 to 50 years in prison.

However, in a unanimous decision Thursday, the Supreme Court said Jackson County Judge John McBain appeared biased and likely influenced the jury, especially when he acted like a prosecutor while questioning a defense expert.

“A judge can legally ask questions at trial but, as the Supreme Court said, those questions cannot appear in any way to make the judge biased,” said Langton.

Steven will now get a new trial with a different judge. A date has not been set.

Langton said he thinks the court made the appropriate decision.

“I don’t like judges who ask questions. I want to try the case,” he said. “The judge should be sitting there and just rule on objections. They can ask a couple of little questions but you have to be careful because juries usually look to the judge for guidance. And at the end of the case, judges give the law to the jury. So, judges should really stay back, take notes, and just moderate the two lawyers. That’s it.”

]]>https://chicago.cbslocal.com/2015/07/20/judge-overturns-conviction-for-man-who-served-27-years-in-prison-for-murder-attempted-rape/
Mon, 20 Jul 2015 22:30:42 +0000nickschmit82https://chicago.cbslocal.com/2015/07/20/judge-overturns-conviction-for-man-who-served-27-years-in-prison-for-murder-attempted-rape/(CBS) — A man who served more than 27 years behind bars for murder and attempted rape on Chicago’s South Side had his case overturned on Monday.

Andersen was convicted in 1980 for the murder of 20-year-old Cathy Trunko on the 4900 block of South Paulina.

But Tepfer says DNA evidence has now cleared Andersen, “finding that prepondorence of the evidence that he would be unlikely to be convicted if re-tried based on the new DNA evidence. This is the most significant step in proving his innocence….this goes a long long way, today’s order, in helping pick up the pieces of the lost three decades…35 years.”

Andersen was let out of jail in 2007 but he and his lawyers have still been fighting to clear his name and Andersen has still been registered as a sex offender because he was also convicted of attempted rape in the Trunko case.

It is not clear if there will be a re-trial for the 54-year-old Andersen who now lives downstate.

The Minnesota Court of Appeals found the criminal defamation statute used to find him guilty is unconstitutional.

Essentially, the law that makes it illegal to defame someone is too broad. Minnesota’s defamation statute was found to be in violation of the First Amendment.

Leita Walker is a First Amendment attorney not connected to the case.

“This is a great decision for free speech in Minnesota,” Walker said.

The appeals court ruling stemmed from a case involving Timothy Turner, who was convicted of criminal defamation.

He admitted posting ads on Craigslist seeking sex from men, pretending to be his ex-girlfriend and her under-age daughter.

In return, the two received what the Isanti County attorney called horrifically graphic texts and pictures from men.

The appeals court’s decision reversed his conviction. Walker says the facts were set aside during the ruling.

“They looked at just the plain terms of the statute and what it could restrict in a given case and said it could restrict speech that is true or it could punish speech that is true and therefore it’s overbroad,” Walker said.

Turner’s attorney, John Arechigo of Arechigo and Stokka, said they fought to protect freedom of speech.

“We feel the Court reached the right conclusion,” Arechigo said. “As the court noted, Mr. Turner’s conduct was reprehensible, but this does not mean he can be punished under an unconstitutional statute.”

Walker calls Minnesota’s law outdated. It was written in the 1960s, long before social media and online profiles and postings came into the picture.

“There’s been really a sea change in libel law and defamation law since this statute was enacted, so it really just hasn’t kept up with the times,” Walker said.

The Court of Appeals said it would be up to the legislature to get a new statute on the books.

A bill was introduced this session to modify the crime of defamation and make this type of behavior a felony. The bill did not pass.

Isanti County Attorney Jeff Edblad hopes with the statute now being deemed unconstitutional and the upcoming special session, the legislature will act swiftly on the bill to protect victims from this type of harassment.

David Hicks after learning that his Guantanamo Bay conviction was overturned on 18 February 2015. (Sky Sydney / The Guardian.)

A U.S. military appellate court overturned Australian David Hicks’ 2007 Guantanamo Bay conviction on charges of “material support for terrorism”. On 18 February 2014, the U.S. Court of Military Commission Review ruled that the crime Hicks was convicted of did not exist as a matter of law before 2006. The alleged criminal acts occurred in or before 2001, before “material support for terrorism” was criminalized. A copy of the court’s ruling is below in full text or here: Hicks v. United States (CMCR 2015).

Professor George Edwards and his students from the Indiana University McKinney School of Law provided pro bono legal research for Hicks’ defense team from 2004 until Hicks’ 2007 guilty plea. Professor Edwards was also tendered as an expert witness on the Hicks case, along with Professor Cherif Bassiouni, Professor Tim McCormack, and the late Judge Antonio Cassese. The Military Commission prohibited the experts from testifying live, and in lieu of live testimony, the experts provided affidavits. Professor Edwards’ two affidavits were on the right to a fair trial under international humanitarian law (the law of war / law of armed conflict), international criminal law, and international human rights law.

During Hicks’ 2007 guilty plea, Professor Edwards (from the U.S.) and Professor McCormick (from Australia) were in the Guantanamo Bay courtroom, and are believed to be the first expert witnesses permitted to travel to Guantanamo Bay for a U.S. Military Commission.

Hicks was sentenced to 7 years in prison, with most suspended. He remained at Guantanamo for two months after pleading guilty, and then after 5 ½ years at the remote island prison was returned to Australia, where he spent an additional 7 months in prison before being released.

Expert witnesses George Edwards and Tim McCormack, and Hicks’ civilian attorney David McCleod on a U.S. military aircraft from Andrews Air Force Base Airplane to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba for David Hicks’ U.S. Military Commission & guilty plea. (March 2007)

According to Military Commission spokesperson Myles Caggins, the U.S. government will not appeal the appellate court’s ruling.

Hicks’ military lawyer for his initial Guantanamo Bay proceedings, Lt. Col. Michael Dan Mori (ret.) (then Major Mori) was not available for comment. He is pictured above with the Hicks defense team as they arrived back at Andrews Air Force Base after the March 2007 guilty plea. Pictured also in this post are Professor George Edwards (Indiana University McKinney School of Law) and Professor Tim McCormack (University of Melbourne Faculty of Law), on a military aircraft traveling from Andrews Air Force Base outside Washington, DC to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba for the U.S. Military Commission proceeding during which Hicks pleaded guilty in March 2007. Seated next to them is David McCleod, an Australian lawyer who served as Hicks’ civilian defense counsel.

]]>https://damiencomerford.com/2015/02/11/when-there-is-no-humanity-and-the-justice-system-gets-it-so-so-wrong/
Wed, 11 Feb 2015 10:50:35 +0000Damien Comerfordhttps://damiencomerford.com/2015/02/11/when-there-is-no-humanity-and-the-justice-system-gets-it-so-so-wrong/Hate to be negative, but humanity and the capacity of the criminal justice system to get it right, are an interesting dichotomy. Yes dichotomy. Rarely, if ever, are they singing from the same hymn book. Instead of being at one and working together, one or the other, or both, go missing in action. But, every now and again these noble principles are forced to undergo a pressure test. In this case pushed under the legal microscope, in the form of the re-hearing of two criminal cases that certainly tested my faith in humanity and represented dramatic illustrations of how the American justice system got it terribly, terribly wrong. In the first example, a New York man, spent 29 years in prison for kidnap and murder, finally walking free after a judge overturned his conviction, saying it was based on a false confession.

David McCallum, was aged 16, when he was arrested for murder in 1985. Now, 30 year later, and a man approaching middle age, he was overcome with emotion after a Brooklyn Supreme Court Judge exonerated him. All I can say is, thank God for a crusading District Attorney who saw a wrong and knew he had to right that wrong. The packed courtroom broke into loud applause on hearing the ruling. McCallum and fellow teenager, Willie Stuckey, also 16 at the time, were arrested for the 1985 kidnapping and murder of 20-year-old Nathan Blenner in Queens. Children discovered Blenner’s body on disused land in Brooklyn. He’d been shot once in the head. McCallum and Stuckey, were arrested a short time later and confessed to the crime. Each suspect initially blamed the other for the murder during videotaped interviews, but both quickly recanted. But their confessions were not worth the paper they were written on. Their confessions had contradictions and what the Brooklyn district attorney, Kenneth Thompson, called “false fed evidence,” or details about the crime that appeared to have been provided by others. McCallum and Stuckey had long maintained their innocence. But a jury convicted the two teenagers in 1986 of second-degree murder, kidnapping, robbery and criminal possession of a weapon. Stuckey died of a heart attack in prison in 2001 at the age of 31, but McCallum, who is now 47, persevered in the attempts at clearing his name. His efforts were boosted when his case was championed by Rubin (Hurricane) Carter, a former professional boxer, who was wrongly convicted of murder in 1967, and spent 19 years in prison before being freed. Carter wrote a deathbed letter to District Attorney Thompson, asking him to investigate the case. In the letter, Carter wrote of McCallum and Stuckey: “Their two confessions, gained by force and trickery, are not corroborated even by each other; they read as if two different crimes were committed.”

District Attorney Thompson said he needed little persuasion to re-examine the case. And his subsequent inquiry found no DNA or physical evidence or credible testimony, to link McCallum or Stuckey to the abduction or the killing. As bad as this case is, the news just gets worse. At a news conference, Thompson said he had “inherited a legacy of disgrace with respect to wrongful conviction cases.” In other words, there were many more cases just like David McCallum. A Conviction Review Unit established by Thompson and headed by a Harvard Law School professor, has resulted in the overturning of nine convictions this year.

In the State Supreme Court in Brooklyn, Assistant district attorney, Mark Hale, told the judge, that the McCallum and Stuckey convictions were tainted by false testimony and their confessions were “the product of improper suggestion, improper inducement and perhaps coercion.” Prosecutors said the convictions in the murder of Blenner in October 1985 had been marked by inconsistencies. While Stuckey told the police that three shots were fired, McCallum said there had only been one. Each described the other as being close to the man when he was shot, but neither had evidence of skin stippling, which often accompanies a shooting at close range. Both suspects said the murder took place at night but the medical examiner said the time of death was 3:15 pm. Among other evidence that Thompson said was discredited, Stuckey confessed to making a comment about a Buick Regal to a woman in Queens about an hour before Blenner’s abduction. The woman told detectives that the two men she encountered were in their 20s and that one had braided hair. The descriptions did not fit either Stuckey or McCallum, who both had close-cropped hair. The District Attorney suggested that the comment about the Buick Regal had been fed to Stuckey, perhaps by the police, to make the confession look more authentic. Thompson said additional doubt was cast on the case when prosecutors began to believe that one of the main witnesses, testified untruthfully. That man, whom Thompson did not name, was the first to link Stuckey to the case, telling investigators that he had given the murder weapon to an aunt who then transferred it to Stuckey before the killing of Blenner. The aunt, Thompson said, refuted the account. McCallum’s shoulders sagged as the judge announced, “I will dismiss the indictment.” He rested his head on a table in the well of the court, as one of his lawyers and the mother of Stuckey, patted his back.McCallum left the courtroom to applause from dozens of supporters, McCallum’s mother sat next to her son in court, gripping his hand and comforting him as the judge overturned the indictment. She later left the court in tears, refusing to talk to the media. McCallum, dressed in a white shirt, beige jacket and khaki pants, emerged from court with a smile and hugged his overjoyed family as dozens of supporters clapped. He then briefly spoke with reporters in a courthouse hallway. “I feel like I want to go home, finally,” he told reporters, admitting that he had at times lost hope of being freed. “I’m very, very happy but I’m very, very sad at the same time,” he said, adding he wished that Stuckey walked free with him. “This is a bittersweet moment because I’m walking out alone,” he said. “There’s somebody else who is supposed to be walking out with me but he isn’t, and that’s Willie Stuckey.” He said his first wish was to walk on the footpath, and then go home and enjoy his mother’s cooking. He had no special requests, saying that after 29 years of prison food, anything she cooked would be wonderful. His mother rushed to embrace her son in the corridor. “I kept praying and hoping for this day to come,” she said.

Despite spending all that time in prison for a crime he didn’t do, David McCallum could at least walk to freedom. The same couldn’t be said for a black 14-year-old teenager,named George Stinney, who was sent to the electric chair more than 70 years ago, wrongly convicted of the murders of two white girls in a segregated mill town, in South Carolina. Finally, a modern day judge reviewed the case, overturning Stinney’s conviction, saying the state committed a great injustice. George Stinney was a child when he was arrested in 1944 and convicted of murder in a trial lasting one day —and then executed. All of these events taking place in a three month time frame, and without an appeal. The speed in which South Carolina delivered its ‘justice’ against the youngest person ever executed in the United States, in the 20th century, was found to be both shocking and extremely unfair, according to a Circuit Judge. “I can think of no greater injustice,” the judge wrote. Stinney’s case, long spoken of by civil rights activists, as an example of how a black person could be wrongly convicted by a southern justice system that sanctioned legal discrimination, when investigators, prosecutors and juries were all white. The two girls, aged 7 and 11, were beaten to death. A search by dozens of people, found their bodies and investigators arrested Stinney, saying witnesses saw him with the girls as they were picking flowers. Stinney was not permitted to speak to his parents, and authorities later claimed he confessed. His supporters said he was a small, frail boy and so scared that he would have said whatever he thought the authorities wanted to hear. They said there was no physical evidence linking him to the murders. In the saddest part of his story, his executioners noted he was so tiny that the electric chair straps didn’t fit him, and an electrode was too big for his leg.

This year, a Circuit Court Judge heard testimony during a two-day hearing. Most of the evidence from the original trial disappeared long ago and most of the witnesses were dead. It took the judge nearly four times as long to issue her ruling, as it did for George Stinney to go from arrest to execution. The judge’s 29 page order included references to the 1931 Scottsboro Boys case in Alabama, where nine black teens were convicted of raping two white women. Eight of them were sentenced to death. Fortunately, the convictions were eventually overturned before the teens went to the gas chamber and the charges were dropped. In the George Stinney case, the Circuit Judge made a point of saying that Stinney did not even get the consideration of an appeal. So, finally there is justice, and some humanity, for George Stinney. What a shame and a travesty that he wasn’t alive to appreciate it.

]]>https://minnesota.cbslocal.com/2015/01/29/lawyer-wants-murder-convicted-overturned-for-trevino/
Fri, 30 Jan 2015 00:57:26 +0000sdswansonhttps://minnesota.cbslocal.com/2015/01/29/lawyer-wants-murder-convicted-overturned-for-trevino/MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) — The lawyer for a convicted murderer was back in court Thursday to fight for his client.

Trevino’s attorney was in front of a three-judge panel at the Minnesota Court of Appeals to ask for a reduction in Trevino’s 27-year sentence, as well as a reversal of the conviction and a new trial.

His lawyer claims the jury did not get accurate instructions in the case.

The court now has 90 days to issue a ruling.

]]>https://losangeles.cbslocal.com/2015/01/16/conviction-reversed-in-2007-in-2007-family-killings/
Fri, 16 Jan 2015 19:57:34 +0000Darleene Powellshttps://losangeles.cbslocal.com/2015/01/16/conviction-reversed-in-2007-in-2007-family-killings/SANTA ANA (AP) — An appellate panel has reversed the conviction of a man in the killing of the father and sister of his friend’s ex-girlfriend in a fiery attack on their Orange County home.

A three-judge panel in Orange County ruled Thursday that Vitaliy Krasnoperov, 29, did not get a fair trial in 2011 when he was convicted of the murders of Jay Dhanak and his daughter Karishma.

During the trial, prosecutors breached an agreement with Krasnoperov by using information he provided to authorities in a proffer statement on the condition it not be used against him, the ruling said.

“It is a vindication of Mr. Krasnoperov’s constitutional rights, and what happened in the trial was really quite unfair,” said Michael Ian Garey, his lawyer on appeal.

Krasnoperov will likely be retried, said Howard Gundy, senior deputy district attorney for Orange County.

Krasnoperov was convicted of two counts of murder for the 2007 deaths of the Dhanaks and was sentenced to life without parole.

Authorities contended Krasnoperov helped plot the murder scheme with his friend Iftekhar Murtaza, who was angry that his ex-girlfriend Shayona Dhanak’s family had opposed them dating. Murtaza was later convicted of carrying out the killings with another friend, Charles Murphy Jr.

At the 2011 trial of Krasnoperov and Murphy, prosecutors called a witness who they would not have known about until he was identified during Krasnoperov’s proffer statement, which was given when plea negotiations were underway, the judges wrote in the ruling. Those negotiations later broke down.

Krasnoperov’s lawyer agreed that witness Jose Velasco could be called during the trial but was not to testify about any conversations with his client about securing a hit man to carry out the killings, the ruling said.

Velasco ended up discussing these conversations, in part during questioning by Murphy’s lawyer. Krasnoperov’s lawyer asked to sever his client’s trial, but his request was denied.

(Copyright 2015 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)

Hamilton, 49, held his daughter, Maia, as he arrived in court for the good news.

“From the day I was arrested, I mean, to now, I’ve maintained my innocence,” Hamilton said. “And the same evidence that was there then is here now.”

The only evidence that put Hamilton behind bars for the murder of Nathaniel Cash in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn was the testimony of an eyewitness. She recanted right after the trial, saying Detective Louis Scarcella made her lie, 1010 WINS’ Juliet Papa reported.

“He was the person that took a non-witness to the precinct, and forced her to say that she’d seen a murder that she did not see,” Hamilton said.

Hamilton further said that when Scarcella arrested him in New Haven, “He kissed me on the cheek like you see in the mafia movies and whispered in my ear that I was going to prison for a murder he knew I did not commit,” WCBS 880’s Rich Lamb reported.

Hamilton said he had several witnesses who prove his alibi that he was in Connecticut at the time of the murder.

The Hamilton case was the latest involving Scarcella, a once-decorated detective who has been accused of coaching witnesses, coercing confessions and trading drugs for testimony in multiple cases.

It’s the latest case involving the disgraced retired detective to be re-investigated by the Brooklyn DA’s offices Integrity Unit… which has found key witnesses were manipulated… and simply not credible.

“Wrongful convictions ultimately destroy the lives of the people who are wrongfully convicted, as well as their families, and also do great damage to the integrity of the justice system,” Thompson said in a statement. “The people of Brooklyn elected me to ensure that justice is done and that is what my decision to vacate Derrick Hamilton’s conviction reflects. The Conviction Review Unit carefully analyzed the scene of the crime and based on the scientific and medical evidence concluded that the sole eyewitness’ account was unreliable.”

A judge agreed even dropped the original charge.

It was a bittersweet victory for Hamilton. He is now a paralegal, having spent the better part of the last two decades studying the law — determined to clear his name.

“I tell him all the time that you are an inspiration because you believed in yourself,” said Hamilton’s wife, Nicole Hamilton. “You believed that one day the system would come into existence and see that you’re innocent, and will prove that to the world, and today is the day.”

It also helped that the block of Monroe Street, and the building where the murder happened near Nostrand Avenue, has not changed much since 1991.

Investigators were able to come back to the scene, and determine the forensic and ballistic evidence showed it couldn’t have happened the way alleged eyewitness Jewel Smith said it did.

Lawyers on both sides now agree it was all Detective Scarcella’s story, and that Smith wasn’t even here.

Smith says she actually at a Key Food store that stood nearby back then. Hamilton said Smith was just as much a victim as he was.

“I’ve spoken to her throughout the years. She’s supported my effort to get out,” Hamilton said. “She wrote to the governor, she wrote to the parole board, she wrote to everybody she could.”

It’s one of the nation’s most ambitious efforts to determine whether old cases were handled properly.

“To date there has been no finding by any judge, nor has there been a statement by any prosecutor, to sustain the sensational claims that have appeared in the press that Detective Scarcella contributed to any person’s wrongful conviction,” his lawyers said in a statement Friday.

But Hamilton said Scarcella belongs in prison. Hamilton also said he is determined to help others who don’t.

He and his supporters wore a hat Friday that read, “Wrongfully convicted” and “Victims of Detective Scarcella.”

“I have a voice, one I didn’t have when I was in prison,” said Kevin Smith, who was wrongfully imprisoned for 27 years.

Hamilton also said he now looks forward to taking a vacation.

“After the vacation, I’ll come back and try to work on some more cases,” said Hamilton, who has done legal work for similar cases in Brooklyn. “Today means more than just my victory, we have a lot of wrongful convictions, people in jails across the nation. I think that we need to get a concentrated effort to help people who are innocent get out of prison.”

]]>https://ktla.com/2014/11/30/after-conviction-judge-clears-pasadena-couple-of-starving-8-year-old-daughter-to-death-in-qatar/
Sun, 30 Nov 2014 15:51:07 +0000tracybloomktlahttps://ktla.com/2014/11/30/after-conviction-judge-clears-pasadena-couple-of-starving-8-year-old-daughter-to-death-in-qatar/An appeals judge in Qatar on Sunday cleared American couple Matthew and Grace Huang of starving their adopted daughter to death in 2013, in a case that drew global attention to the Middle Eastern nation’s justice system.

However, the couple were blocked from leaving Qatar on Sunday by immigration officials at Hamad International Airport, who confiscated their passports, according to the Doha News agency, which cited a family spokesman Eric Volz.

A new warrant had been issued for their arrest on unknown charges, the agency cited Volz as saying. The couple remained at the airport Sunday night with the U.S. Ambassador to Qatar, Dana Shell Smith, Doha News reported.

Earlier, Matthew Huang issued a statement thanking the Qatari judge for his decision.

“This has been an emotional trial for me and my family,” Matthew Huang said in a statement. “Grace and I want to go home and be reunited with our sons. We have not been able to grieve our daughter’s death, but we want to thank the judge for today’s decision.”

The Huangs — who were living in Qatar while Matthew Huang worked for a international company working on construction projects for the 2022 World Cup — were arrested in January 2013 when their 8-year-old daughter Gloria died.

They were charged with starving her to death, convicted in March and sentenced to three years in prison.

The Qatari prosecutor sought to paint Grace and Matthew Huang as inhumane — alleging they bought their adopted daughter cheaply from her poverty-stricken parents in Africa — and had threatened to seek human trafficking charges.

The couple spent nearly a year in prison before being freed in November 2013 pending their appeal.

In explaining his decision to overturn the conviction, Judge Abdulrahman al-Sharafi cited weaknesses in forensic reports and said the trial judge failed to properly consider testimony from witnesses who said Gloria wasn’t deprived.

A report by pathologists hired by the defense, obtained by CNN, stated they found no evidence tissue samples were taken from Gloria’s body after her death, despite the fact Qatari investigators submitted an autopsy report.

Advocates for the Huangs suggested the lab report was fabricated and said their request with the Qatari judiciary for a formal investigation went unanswered.

Criticism of Qatari justice

The case against the Huangs shined a light on the Qatari justice system and drew complaints from the United States.

Qatar is a key ally in the U.S.-led coalition against the terror group ISIS and host to many countries’ forces involved in airstrikes. The Qatari government also helped the United States secure the release of Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl from Taliban captivity this year.

Despite the close ties, the State Department expressed concern. Officials requested in October that Qatar’s government lift the Huangs’ travel ban, allowing them to return to the United States.

“The 22 long months of court proceedings following their daughter’s tragic death have compounded the tragedy for the Huang family, and it is time now, as the Appeals Court stated, to let the Huangs return home,” U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said in a statement.

“We are deeply concerned about new delays that have prevented their departure,” he said.

A United Nations special rapporteur investigating the justice system in Qatar also called attention to the Huangs’ case and urged the government to release them and send them home.

Fighting family

After the couple’s arrest, their two sons, also adopted from Africa, were temporarily placed in a Qatari orphanage. They have since been sent back to the United States to live with Grace Huang’s mother.

The entire family chipped in during the prolonged separation. With Matthew Huang fired from his job, the couple are living on donations from family and friends.

Grace Huang’s brother, Daniel Chin, gave up his job in California to work on the case full time. He was the nerve center of the family, raising money for expenses and defense costs and dealing with the Huangs’ lawyers and advocates.

Their focus on their fate took away from time for them to grieve Gloria’s loss.

“Everything has revolved around her case and our situation,” Grace Huang said. “We haven’t had a chance to really say goodbye and mourn. We just really want to be able to honor her place in our lives with our friends and family and that hasn’t happened yet.”

]]>https://losangeles.cbslocal.com/2014/11/21/wrongly-convicted-woman-declared-innocent-set-to-collect-600k-from-state/
Fri, 21 Nov 2014 19:54:51 +0000Darleene Powellshttps://losangeles.cbslocal.com/2014/11/21/wrongly-convicted-woman-declared-innocent-set-to-collect-600k-from-state/TORRANCE (AP) — A woman who spent 17 years in a California prison for a murder she didn’t commit was declared factually innocent Friday, clearing the way for her to collect about $600,000 in compensation from the state.

Susan Mellen, 59, said she was “so grateful” for the ruling that came about six weeks after her conviction was overturned and she was released from state prison.

Arnold overturned Mellen’s conviction in the 1997 beating death of a homeless man because she was poorly represented at trial and a woman who claimed to have heard Mellen confess was a habitual liar.

Mellen’s conviction in orchestrating the killing of Richard Daly at a Lawndale home where she and others lived was based on witness testimony.

Deputy District Attorney Loren Naiman, who didn’t handle the case at trial, said the incriminating testimony was doubtful and asked the judge to set aside the conviction.

Three gang members later were linked to the crime, and one took a lie detector test and said Mellen wasn’t there.

Mellen’s case was taken up by Deirdre O’Connor, head of Innocence Matters, which seeks to exonerate the wrongly convicted. O’Connor said the detective who arrested Mellen also was responsible for a case in 1994 that resulted in two convicts later being exonerated.

The declaration of factual innocence is rare. It allows Mellen, who left prison broke, to claim $100 from the state for every day she spent behind bars.

Mellen said she cried every night in prison but never lost faith she would be reunited with her three grown children. She scrawled the word “freedom” on the bottom of her shoes because she planned to one day walk free.

On Friday, she was not only free, but innocent.

(Copyright 2014 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)

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Tue, 12 Aug 2014 00:27:19 +0000lcook34https://newyork.cbslocal.com/2014/08/11/conviction-overturned-for-new-jersey-man-accused-of-murdering-his-wife/TRENTON, N.J. (CBSNewYork) — A man serving a life sentence for throwing his wife off of a 120-foot cliff in northern New Jersey has now had his conviction overturned.

“It’s a good day for Stephen Scharf,” said defense attorney Ed Bilinkas.

The 37-year-old former Forest City Police Officer was convicted in 2011 of stealing another officer’s rifle and setting fire to the Forest City Police Station. He was sentenced to 20 years in prison. In May of this year, the Iowa Court of Appeals reversed Ellenbecker’s conviction because it said authorities questioned Ellenbecker in the hospital without advising him of his Miranda rights.

Ellenbecker filed for his release a week after the court’s ruling and a hearing on that request has now been set for August 15 in Winnebago County District Court. Online court records do not list a new trial date for Ellenbecker and he currently remains in custody.

]]>https://detroit.cbslocal.com/2014/03/30/court-decision-may-clear-way-for-lawsuit-against-attorney-for-malpractice/
Mon, 31 Mar 2014 01:12:21 +0000asaundershttps://detroit.cbslocal.com/2014/03/30/court-decision-may-clear-way-for-lawsuit-against-attorney-for-malpractice/OAKLAND COUNTY (AP) – An Oakland County man who served seven years in prison before his sexual assault conviction was overturned, has cleared an important hurdle in a lawsuit against his attorney.

The Michigan Supreme Court doesn’t intend to intervene in a lower court’s decision that allows Jackob Trakhtenberg to sue Deborah McKelvy for malpractice.

Trakhtenberg was convicted after a 53-minute trial during which McKelvy did not ask for a jury or make an opening statement.

He was released from prison in 2012 after the Supreme Court said McKelvy’s work violated her client’s constitutional rights to an adequate defense.

Trakhtenberg has denied the sexual abuse allegations. He won a civil lawsuit that was filed against him on behalf of the alleged victim.

]]>https://detroit.cbslocal.com/2013/12/28/man-cleared-of-rape-on-faulty-bite-mark-evidence-settles-for-1-5m/
Sat, 28 Dec 2013 16:45:47 +0000sstoddarthttps://detroit.cbslocal.com/2013/12/28/man-cleared-of-rape-on-faulty-bite-mark-evidence-settles-for-1-5m/DETROIT (AP) – A man who served 13 years in prison for rape based on faulty bite-mark evidence has settled a lawsuit against a Detroit-area suburb for $1.5 million, his attorney said Friday.

The deal between Michael Cristini and the city of Warren was struck less than two weeks before trial in Detroit federal court, attorney Michael Dezsi told The Associated Press.

Cristini “was ready to put this behind him, and he believed this was a fair amount. This was a nightmare that happened more than 20 years ago,” Dezsi said, referring to the initial criminal case. “It ruined his life.”

In 1991, Cristini and Jeffrey Moldowan were convicted of abducting Moldowan’s former girlfriend, raping her and dumping her on a street in Detroit. The evidence included testimony from experts who linked the men’s teeth to bite marks on the woman. Cristini was sentenced to at least 50 years in prison.

But Moldowan’s conviction was thrown out in 2002 by the state Supreme Court after bite-mark evidence was discredited and testimony was recanted. Cristini’s conviction was thrown out by a Macomb County judge in 2003. Both men were put on trial again separately and acquitted.

They filed lawsuits against Warren, the county and a dentist claiming their civil rights were violated by a bungled police investigation. Cristini insisted he was delivering pizzas on the night of the alleged attack.

A message seeking comment on the settlement was left with Warren Mayor Jim Fouts. Dezsi said Cristini earlier made smaller settlements with the county and Dr. Alan Warnick.

Moldowan in 2011 settled his lawsuit with Warren for $2.8 million. He also reached deals with the county and Warnick.

The woman who accused Moldowan and Cristini of rape was also sued, but a federal appeals court in 2009 said she could not be pursued. Her statements were “critical” in the decision to file charges but “were only part of a broader, independent investigation,” the court said.

]]>https://chicago.cbslocal.com/2013/12/11/police-torture-victim-freed-after-30-years-behind-bars/
Wed, 11 Dec 2013 18:19:13 +0000Todd Feurerhttps://chicago.cbslocal.com/2013/12/11/police-torture-victim-freed-after-30-years-behind-bars/PONTIAC, Ill. (CBS) — Stanley Wrice walked out of a central Illinois prison on Wednesday, freed after 30 years behind bars, after his rape conviction was tossed out because he had been tortured into confessing.

Wrice, 59, was released from Pontiac Correctional Center late Wednesday morning, a day after a Cook County judge overturned his conviction, saying two former detectives lied about how they treated Wrice while interrogating him in 1982.

[worldnow id=9625252 width=385 height=288 type=video]

“It’s just an overwhelming feeling of joy, happiness that finally it’s over with,” Wrice said after walking into the arms of his two daughters, attorneys, and others who greeted him as he left prison.

Wrice said he planned to eat a cheeseburger, and get some sleep after getting none the night before.

On Tuesday, Judge Richard Walsh stopped short of finding Wrice innocent, but ordered him released from prison, awaiting a decision from a special prosecutor on whether to retry him.

Wrice has long maintained police officers under the command of disgraced Cmdr. Jon Burge beat him in the groin and face, until he confessed to a 1982 gang rape. A witness against him also has recanted, testifying he implicated Wrice after he also was tortured.

Wrice was sentenced to 100 years in prison after he was convicted, and had been in prison for 30 years.

His attorney, Jennifer Bonjean, said it’s a case of justice long delayed, but not denied. After years of the case making its way through the Illinois Appellate and Supreme Courts, it took only eight ours over two days in a Cook County courtroom to convince Judge Richard Walsh that Wrice was telling the truth about being tortured.

The two former detectives he’d accused of torturing him – John Byrne and Peter Dignan – had asserted their Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination when called to testify. Walsh said there’s no doubt police were torturing suspects at Area 2 in the 1980s, noted medical evidence showed Wrice was injured, and said his torture claims were “unrebutted.”

Bonjean said it was like “a load of bricks had been from his shoulders” when Wrice learned he was going free.

“He had the most physical reaction I’ve ever seen in a client. He just sunk down in his chair,” she said. “It was so powerful. He let out a sigh that was audible.”

Bonjean traveled to Pontiac on Wednesday to be there for Wrice’s release, along with his daughter, Gail Lewis, who was only 1-year-old when her father went to prison.

Bonjean said she still intends to prove that prosecutors – including then Cook County State’s Attorney Richard M. Daley – knew about police torture under Burge.

At a hearing on Thursday, his attorneys hope the State’s Attorney will drop all charges and officially set him free.

No Chicago police officers ever have been convicted of torturing suspects, but Burge was convicted of perjury for lying in a civil suit when he said he’d never seen or participated in the torture of criminal suspects at Area 2.

Burge is serving a 4 1/2-year sentence in federal prison, and the city has paid out more than $83 million in settlements to people who have claimed they were tortured by Burge and his detectives.

The Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office has been ordered to put Jesse Peoples on trial again within 90 days or release him from a life sentence. He’s been in prison for 10 years.

The appeals court says trial attorney Ira Harris was ineffective by failing to raise key issues with two witnesses who testified against Peoples. The witnesses said Peoples was driving and sitting closest to a gun found in a stolen Jaguar.

The court says Peoples provided his lawyer with a police report that showed he wasn’t the driver, but Harris didn’t use the information during trial.

A message seeking comment was left for Harris.

Court documents show Shannon Clark, a drug dealer, was shot and killed outside of his Detroit home on May 18, 2001. According to Clark’s girlfriend, the two had returned home at 11 p.m., and Clark immediately went out again, leaving her in the home filled with marijuana and cash. A couple of hours later, a neighbor went outside after hearing three or four gunshots and found Clark’s body lying on the front lawn. He had been shot once in the chest and twice in the back of the head.

Three months later, police arrested three men — Peoples, Demetrious Powell and Cornelious Harris — after the trio led the police on a chase in a stolen Jaguar that ultimately ended in a car crash. According to a police report written by an officer who witnessed the crash, the driver of the Jaguar was Cornelious Harris. After the crash, police found a nine millimeter Sig Sauer pistol on the driver’s side floorboard of the Jaguar — the same gun used to kill Clark.

At trial, Peoples alone was tried for Clark’s murder. According to court documents, the only evidence connecting him to the crime was the murder weapon found in the stolen Jaguar and the testimony of Powell and Cornelious Harris. The duo testified to two key facts: 1) that Peoples was the driver of the stolen Jaguar and had thus been sitting closest to the murder weapon, which Peoples owned; and 2) that Peoples told them about how he killed Clark.

Both witnesses testified that they admitted to their knowledge of the Clark murder because they did not want to be implicated themselves. During closing arguments, the prosecutor said that Powell and Harris had received nothing in exchange for their testimony, but the judge issued a jury instruction reminding the jury that the two men had received civil immunity.

After some time, the jury announced that it was deadlocked, but the judge instructed the jury to continue. Two hours later, the jury found Peoples guilty of premeditated murder, felony murder, being a felon in possession of a firearm, and felony firearm possession. The court sentenced Peoples to two concurrent life sentences for the murder convictions and shorter sentences for the other convictions.

]]>https://losangeles.cbslocal.com/2013/09/13/conviction-for-san-diego-triple-killing-overturned/
Fri, 13 Sep 2013 22:14:35 +0000Iris Salemhttps://losangeles.cbslocal.com/2013/09/13/conviction-for-san-diego-triple-killing-overturned/PASADENA (AP) — A federal appeals court on Friday overturned the conviction and death penalty of a man for three San Diego murders, saying he was denied a chance to argue the trial was tainted by racial prejudice.

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Friday also ordered Hector Ayala freed unless the state of California planned to retry him in a “reasonable” amount of time.

Ayala was convicted in 1989 of killing three people during a 1985 drug robbery at a San Diego garage.

At trial, the prosecution excused all seven black and Hispanic jurors who might have served.

Ayala’s counsel made three motions arguing that the prosecution was systematically excluding minority jurors. The Superior Court judge accepted the prosecution’s explanations that the rejections were based on “race-neutral” reasons and denied the motions.

The appellate panel, in a 2-1 ruling, said some of those justifications appeared to be “highly implausible.”

In one case, for instance, the prosecution claimed it used a peremptory challenge to excuse a juror “because he did not dress or act like other jurors, and did not mix or socialize with them,” the court said.

Another was excused because the prosecution said it was concerned that he might not be willing to impose the death penalty. However, the appellate court noted that white jurors who seemed concerned or hesitant about the death penalty were not excused.

The appeals court said Ayala’s attorney was barred from the closed hearing where the prosecution gave its justifications and didn’t receive a transcript of the proceedings until after the trial.

That “prevented Ayala from showing that the prosecution utilized its peremptory challenges in a racially discriminatory manner, and thus permitted him to be tried, convicted, and sentenced to death by a jury selected in a manner repugnant to the Constitution,” the court said.

Ayala had appealed after a divided California Supreme Court found that there were trial errors but they were harmless.